By Ben Nuelle
Too many weeds can affect crop yields and with most of them becoming resistant to chemicals this poses a major problem for farmers.Tom Quade with FMC Corporation says the challenges never cease.
?It?s been apparent in recent years we have to be much more proactive and careful in how we use the products we have that still work. Growers are all too familiar with how collectively we have all ruined Roundup on some key weeds. It still controls a lot of weeds but some of the most important ones became resistant because we overused it to the exclusion of other control options,? Quade said.
Quade says going forward growers have to take a planned approach.
?The answer for this is for growers to be proactive. Plan to use soil applied residual herbicides and to the extent possible, mix up and alternate their modes of action. The industry has tried to make this easier. Herbicides are classified by modes of action and all labels have at the top of the first page a mode of action if it is a combination herbicide,? Quade said.
Quade says this is so growers can easily read and understand how to use the product. He says overlapping herbicides is one way to stave of resistant weeds and adds crop rotation also makes it easier to use different modes of action.
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